St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) continues to benefit tremendously under the EU-funded Banana Accompanying Measures (BAM) programme.
H. E. Ambassador Mikael Barfod, Head of EU delegation to Barbados and East Caribbean announced at press conference held by Prime Minister Dr. Ralph E. Gonsalves this morning, the signing of several contracts under the BAM initiative.
Signed this morning the contracts for the construction of the feeder road and green house at Montreal Gardens; the upgrading of the Langley Park packing facility; the erection of a food science lab at the Community College, and the construction of on farm infrastructures for banana and livestock at various farm location throughout SVG.
These contracts valued about 18 million EC dollars.
Ambassador Barfod noted, “apart from building green house and feeder road, the projects aims to strengthen the entire value chain by increasing production exports and employment in the agriculture sector, as well as to create an enabling environment for production and improve the marketing environment for small-scale commercial farming.”
In addition to this, he pointed out that he and his work associates would welcome any initiative by the Government of SVG that will explore ways to hand over production assets such as green houses and packing facilities to the private sectors with the desire to create examples of best practice for the regions as a whole.